Portraits
by foxyboy
Summary: Some fighting within the Kamiya dojo and Yahiko's back out on the streets... And things don't go all too well...


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Portraits  
By [Foxyboy][1]

  
Stars of Tears from the RPG "Xenogears" 

This 'ere fanfic takes place sometime in the near future; three years to be precise, when the Kenshin-gumi become one big happy family. Man's imperfection leaves us hurt and crying, but how can a child cope with this kind of pain? This fic is just emotional exhaust; just what I'm feeling right now so please, be kind when criticizing. If any of this seems blown WAY out of proportion or if it seems a bit too abnormal, feel free to try and yell at me. (I stress on the word try) Forgive the bad grammar or any misspelled words I may have. If any of this offends you, sorry. All I'm doing is trying to portray what we teenagers go through when we fall into an identity crisis.   


(Warning! This is a death/angst fic, so I hope that this isn't all that devastating to any of you. I should know, it was to me and I wrote this...!) 

---- 

As the rain crashed down upon the Kamiya Dojo, only one thing was heard above the sound of crashing thunder and strong rain, it was Kaoru's voice. Kaoru was yelling at Yahiko, but it wasn't because they were quarreling, it was because they were fighting... Yahiko's eyes were filled with shock, and he stood there frozen. He told Kaoru that she was a fucking bitch, and he left the room crying. He ran but Kaoru just turned her back and walked away. Kenshin was trying to get through to Kaoru, about the way she yelled at Yahiko. But she just didn't listen. She was fed up with him. As Yahiko reached the gates of the dojo, he mumbled... 

"Damn you Kaoru... I'll show you... I'm no useless street punk..." 

Yahiko opened the gate and closed it gently. He strapped his shinai to his back and left the dojo. Kaoru yelled at him for accidentally hitting the last portrait she had of her father. The portrait wasn't destroyed but the frame broke and the portrait fell to the wet floor. Kaoru saw this and screamed. The last memory she had of her father was ruined. The water made the ink intermingle and she picked the portrait up, sobbing. She looked at Yahiko and screamed at him. Yahiko couldn't fight back, he knew that it was his fault and he took all the slaps and verbal abuse. Kenshin arrived in time before Kaoru could do any more damage and stopped Kaoru from hurting Yahiko even more. But still Kaoru wasn't finished. She yelled one final insult and this one did it. This one broke the ice... 

"Yahiko, You're nothing but a useless street brat and nothing but a pain in my neck! I don't care if you died right this moment in fact I'd be glad that you did!" 

Yahiko was stunned and tried to react, but nothing came out from his mouth, only empty words and gasps for air. Then he ran away from the room and into his room. He picked up his shinai, and left his room, sneaking past all of them. When he closed the gate and left the dojo, he was still weeping. Kaoru didn't listen to a word Kenshin said. Sanosuke was sleeping soundly throughout the entire fiasco. Yahiko was running through the rainy streets, his entire body was drenched in rainwater. And yet he pressed on the night. He was going nowhere, he didn't know where to run to, or whom to run to. He just ran and ran, his tears still flowing down his face. He just wanted to get away from it all. While back at the dojo, no one had noticed Yahiko was gone. But Kenshin felt something was wrong... 

"Kaoru, I want you to think about what you just did to Yahiko. I'm going to check up on the boy." 

Kenshin slowly trodded the floors of the dojo. He felt sorry for Yahiko. He didn't mean to destroy Kaoru's picture of her father. As he was about to enter Yahiko's room, he expected him to be there, crying. He didn't find Yahiko inside and his shinai was gone as well. He ran to the training hall in a hurry only to see that the hall was empty as well. Where could Yahiko have gone to? Then he remembered. That thud he heard, it came from the gate, he ran away! He ran to his room to get his sakaba and ran towards the gate. He opened it and the loud sound it made when he closed it broke Kaoru's silence. The only person that could have went out must be Kenshin. 'Why did he leave?' She thought and she decided to follow him. 

Yahiko was still crying when he realized where he was. He had entered the worst part of town. Thieves, murderers and drunks littered the rainy streets. he wiped his tears and walked slowly, as not to attract attention. But still, someone came up to him. The man had a shaggy beard, and reeked of sake, definitely a bum Yahiko thought... He placed his arm around Yahiko's neck and asked... 

"Kid, what're you doin' here? Ya lost?" 

"No, I'm not lost, and it's none of your business. So get your arm off my neck or else!" 

"Ooh, you're a tough one eh? Don't worry, I'll let you go in exchage for the beautiful skin underneath your clothes..." 

"You freak! Get away from me!" 

Yahiko slapped the man's hands away from his shoulder, and brandished his shinai. The man just laughed and whistled, 'A signal perhaps?' he thought. Yahiko was then surrounded by four men carrying knives. 

"This one's cute, he'd fetch a high price." 

"Not only is he cute, he's feisty. You know our customers like that." 

"How much do you think he'll be worth?" 

"Maybe about, 15,000 yen, perhaps even more if were lucky." 

Yahiko gulped, his throat was tight and his hands were shivering. 'Why am I scared of them? They're not that tough, but...' His body was in a chill because of fear, the cold night air and the rain didn't help at all either. 

"Kid, why don't you just give up? If you do, we won't hurt you. We need that skin of yours intact for customer satisfaction." 

"Remember that You can't take us all down with only a shinai." 

"Ha, what a laugh! I am Yahiko Myojin, the son of a great samurai, and a student of Kamiya kashin ryu! I am not about to let a bunch of pimps or anyone else for that matter, to defeat me!" 

Yahiko charges at them with the fury of a tiger but initiative won't make you win the way you think it will. He beats down two men and started to feel confident about his swordsmanship until his pride got in his way. He spun around to attack the remaining foes only to be caught off guard by one of them. He stabbed him in the back, no one could miss at such a range. He blacks out and he slowly loses consciousness. His blue and white training clothes started to turn a deep hue of crimson. He was dying, he was almost dead... 

"Why...? Why...?" 

Yahiko fell to the floor with a loud thud, dead, his heart had stopped beating. The last things that he was thinking of were of all the great times he had with his friends. All of them, even Kaoru... Then he lost everything in the blink of an eye, nothing was left. He had finally stopped breathing and he lay there in the rain, a mere corpse and a mere shadow of his former self... The other two pimps left standing just laughed at the loss of a source of Yen. Suddenly one of them realized that this wasn't good for business. 

"Whaddya' do that for? Now we can't earn anymore money off of him!" 

"It was either me or him. So just stop your whining and let's get his body out of the streets before someone sees this!" 

Footsteps were heard from the far end of the street. A faint silhouette slowly appeared and could be seen from the distance. It was Kenshin. He finally arrived, but he arrived a second to late... 

"Ya... Yahiko...? Yahiko?!" 

Kenshin noticed Yahiko's body on the ground, his back had a knife stabbed into it. He was still clutching his shinai in his hand even after death. Kenshin's eyes felt the sting of his tears. He turned to the men and he felt the urge to kill rising again. He was turning to the hitokiri, Battousai. Yet even as Battousai, his eyes were still flowing with tears. 

"I wasn't even here to help Yahiko in his last moments, I wasn't even here for his last breaths... It's all my fault... Forgive me Yahiko... I know you killed him, That's why I won't let you, any of you, Get away!" 

Kenshin grabbed his sakaba and tilted it's striking side, It's sharp edge gleamed menacingly in the faint moonlight. After all these years that the Sakaba that he carried accompanied him, It never tasted the blood of anyone or anything. He charged at the men in a rage of blood and anger. Kenshin didn't think twice about his actions. After all these years of training, he was going to kill again. No more than 5 seconds and all of them were dead. Their blood was trickling down onto the cobbled roads and into the cold, damp earth. Kenshin kneeled down, picked up Yahiko's body, removed the knife, and tried to carry his body back to the dojo, his face smothered with his tears. There he met Kaoru, she was drenched and cold. Kaoru saw the body Kenshin was carrying and the expression on Kenshin's face. This was all she needed to understand what happened. She fell to the floor, in a state of shock. Her body froze and she couldn't move. She knew he was dead but still she didn't believe it. Only one phrase escaped from her mouth... 

"My fault, all my fault..." 

Kaoru's tears fell on the sidewalk. Her voice was as silent as her tears. She couldn't forgive herself for yelling at Yahiko. Now after all this, Yahiko was in the arms of Kenshin, dead. Kenshin's tears were dropping on Yahiko's cheek and he tried to tell Kaoru to stand up so they could finally head home. Kaoru didn't need anyone to say that, she knew by heart, that that was what Kenshin would say. She stood up and walked along side Kenshin. The rain was dripping from their clothing but they didn't care, the only thing that really mattered was Yahiko... 

When they finally reached the dojo, Kaoru told Kenshin to put Yahiko on the bed, he deserves to sleep after this. Kenshin realized that Kaoru can't accept the fact that Yahiko was dead. But neither can he. He placed the body of Yahiko on the mattress and covered him with a blanket. Kaoru knelt down to be able to reach Yahiko. She tried to whisper to Yahiko, even if her throat was all choked up and her vision blurred with tears. 

"Sleep well Yahiko... Sleep well..." 

Kaoru combed her hand through Yahiko's hair, kissed him on the forehead and smiled. She left for her room, crying in her heart. She left Kenshin in the same room as him. Kenshin thought to himself, 'Yahiko's only a little boy and now he's gone. After all this time that we've been together, he's lying silently here, not even breathing. It's not fair, it's just not fair... Why not me? After all my days of killing, after all my days being the Hitokiri Battousai. Why didn't I die instead? Why...?' He stood up and left for his room as well. 

Kaoru entered her room and saw the four photographs. There was a large one that had all of them in one large painting. One photo had a picture of Kenshin smiling, as he always did. The other was a portrait of Sanosuke, drinking sake. And the last one was of Yahiko. He was carrying his shinai in his right hand. Kaoru remembered that Yahiko always wanted a real sword, and no matter how hard he begged they would never get one for him. Maybe she can try to make it up to him... She lay down on her bed, and her tears moistened her face all over again. She slowly cried herself to sleep and she slept a long dreamless sleep... 

[The next day] 

Kaoru picked up the photograph of Yahiko and headed for a local painter. She asked if he could paint a portrait of Yahiko twice, she wanted one to be large and the other she wanted small. He told Kaoru to be back later and it would be finished. She paid the man and headed for the funeral ceremony for Yahiko. But before they buried Yahiko, she asked if she could give Yahiko something. She walked slowly towards the casket, opened it and placed beside Yahiko, his very own Katana. He seemed to smile in a way that made Kaoru smile as well. They closed the casket and Kaoru stood up and went towards Kenshin, weeping. After the ceremonies and after they had buried Yahiko, she left for the painter and picked up the portraits. She went back home and exchanged the portrait of her father for a portrait of Yahiko. 

"I guess if I can't have a portrait of dad, I can at least have a portrait of you, Yahiko. At least this way I can always remember you... I hope that wherever you are, you remember me... I'm so sorry..." 

She then left the dojo and went to Yahiko's burial ground . She placed the photograph on his headstone and began to remember that he destroyed her fathers picture. 

"Until now I can't forgive you for wrecking dad's picture, but I hope that you can forgive me. For all the times I've made your life a total hell. Yahiko, you always were the one that made each day seem better than the rest, in your own special way. Words can't describe how important you were to us all..." 

Kaoru never realized how much she had loved Yahiko, until now. She left his grave still crying. The sting of her tears were painful. But not as painful as losing a friend... 

(Last scene) 

Kenshin and Kaoru were standing in front of the large painting of Yahiko. Kaoru placed her head on Kenshin's shoulder, and cried again. Kenshin's eyes were welling up with tears as he stared at the portrait in front of him. The portrait seemed to look even more painful to them by each passing second. Yahiko was finally gone, They would never see him again, and that made them cry even more. Kaoru's wish was finally fulfilled, but she then hoped that she could rewrite history and undo what has been done. But that's too late now, way too late... It was over... All over... 

Owari 

Authors constant ramblings: 

1) I'm sorry for the outcome but that's the way the story went... (Sob, weep) ;_; 

2) I wrote this fic when I was depressed so this is what I came up with. Forgive me for thinking up such a sappy story. Gomennasai... 

3) Please tell me what you think of this fic. E mail me at Tru_blu_FY@angelfire.com 

4) Sakaba is reversed edge, Shinai is bamboo sword and Katana is a japanese saber for your information. I know that most of you know this already and that these words don't need introduction, but I decided to educate the fans of Rurouni Kenshin that didn't know what these terms meant... 

5) Forgive me for the typo's!!! I took this little quote from a senior friend, April; [please don't hate my typo's! They have feelings too!] (Aww! Now isn't that cute ladies and gentlemen? ~_^) 

10/28/99 13:42:43 

   [1]: Mailto:tru_blu_FY@angelfire.com



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